And My Kingdom Is As Great
by Mandy du Barrie
Summary: The Goblin King is feeling particularly cruel when he grants Elsie's wish.
1. Into a Dream

**My first Fanfic ever! I hope you like it! Rated T just in case.**

**Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own Labyrinth, Jareth, Hoggle, or anything from the flm, but Elsie, Hira, and her world are my ideas.**

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_I wish that there really was a place as great as my dream kingdom. I wish that I could live there forever._

_A million miles away, in a place that wouldn't show up on any earthly map, the Goblin King heard her secret wish._

Elsie ran, her dress gathered up in her arms to prevent tripping, but the tree branches and foliage underfoot were difficult to maneuver through. The dress she was wearing, a sky blue satin peasant dress, was entirely unsuited for this sort of thing, but Elsie liked to look glamorous no matter what she was doing.

At present, she was taking a detour through the forest in an attempt to intercept a stampeding herd of unicorns. Hira, a small creature vaguely resembling a fox, was by her side.

"What did you do to upset them?" Elsie asked of the imp.

"Oi didn't do nuffin'." She replied in a thick accent, taking offense to the accusation. "All Oi did was ask 'em how come they have those 'fings on their heads. Oi asked if they'd been dropped as babies. Surely they couldn'a've thought it was rude, it bein' a' simple a question as that."

Elsie rolled her eyes. "No, I'm sure they couldn't. I mean, you wouldn't be upset if someone asked you that, would you? " Elsie asked tauntingly. She didn't know why the unicorns were stampeding, but she was certain that it wasn't because of Hira's teasing. They were used to the little imp.

Elsie was on her knees, peering from behind a bush. There they were, trampling over the village's garden as if it was pavement. She watched sadly as silver hooves demolished the pumpkins. "Why can't they just stay in the forest instead of doing all this damage?"

Hira was beside Elsie, her long, curved ears alert. "I dunno, but they're sure makin' a mess ain't they?"

"Come on." She darted from out of the bushes and towards the herd. "We've got to get them to turn around."

Without a word, Hira was running between the feet of the unicorns, nipping at their ankles. Elsie waved her arms, attempting to frighten the creatures back into the woods.

The herd was more than irritated; it was livid, and the unicorns' faces were masks of terror. The girl recognized this, and, in an instant, understood why. She stood still, gazing in horror at the sight.

On the inky black horizon, a large, skeletal form reached up into the sky. A castle on top of a hill stood menacingly, and Elsie had never seen it before in her life. It was so strange seeing something so dark juxtaposed in her beautiful world. "Hira, have you ever seen anything like it?"

Hira, having succeeded in herding the unicorns towards the forest, where they were now heading, stood beside her friend. "Never," she said.

The castle was emitting a fog which was rolling across the field and over the mountains towards Elsie's kingdom. A cold chill ran up her spine at the sight.

The alarm blared, running through her head like a jackhammer. Elsie pounded the snooze button. She really didn't want to get up. The bed felt so good under her tired head, but Elsie knew that she wouldn't be in time for work if she didn't get up right then.

But the covers were so warm, and her dreams were beckoning to her, tempting her to return to them. Could she call in sick? No, she only had three sick days left, and she didn't want to waste them. Last night's dream was amazing, and she hated waking up.

Her dreams were her life. In them, she was someone different, someone new. The instant she fell asleep she was taken to another world. In it, she was the queen. Her kingdom was built from all of the fond memories of her mother's stories.

In them, there was a beautiful place full of deep forests and lush gardens with a little village that surrounded the castle. The village was inhabited by all manner of creatures, and the forest was home to a thousand different species of fairy.

None of these splendors, her mother had said, even compared to the castle itself. Within its walls there were hundreds of twisting hallways and enormous libraries. The throne room was as long as two football fields put end to end with a thousand chandeliers scattered about.

The real world couldn't even compare to her dream world, and to wake up in real life was like going to sleep in her world, dreaming an uninteresting dream. After all of the unhappiness of her life, Elsie felt as though there was nothing worth staying awake for.

_I wish…_

If only her mother had been there for her, instead of disappearing that night. It easier to say that she was dead than to say that she disappeared, her father insisted. Elsie learned to say that she was, but she really knew. Her father was never the affectionate sort, so Elsie had grown up virtually alone. Whenever she tried to talk to him, he would always send her to bed. In fact, her punishment for everything was to be sent to bed. When he didn't want to look at her, because she looked so much like her mother, she was told to go to bed.

In her loneliness, she had sought refuge in her dream world.

Last night's dream was great. As much as she enjoyed her leisurely dreams, in which she would take a luxurious bubble bath in the golden tub the size of a pool, or sprawl across her fur covered, king sized bed, the adventurous ones were the best.

But…Why was that castle looming on the horizon? It was no creation of hers. She would surely remember thinking of it, but could not. And it had been so strange…Not frightening, but _enticing_. The mere sight of it made her want to explore its halls and the grounds around it.

It was best that she put it from her mind for now. Elsie chose a simple, lavender top, a nice blouse with flowing sleeves and a pretty ribbon tied around the waist in a deeper shade of lavender. The color complimented her eyes, playing up the blue in their otherwise green tone, but did absolutely nothing for her skin tone. The years during which she had only ventured out of doors to go to work and return straight home had robbed her skin of its rosy glow, leaving her with a solid, pallid complexion. This pale shirt, coupled with a peasant skirt and ballet flats, lavender, of course, left her looking faded and ghostlike. Were it not for her ridiculously long, dark hair, she might be mistaken for the fog, taking on a human form for only a moment before swirling away into the atmosphere.

Makeup was not of enormous importance to her; choosing just a dash of mascara to make her appear more alert and a touch of lip gloss to break up the monochrome of her face. Hair, too, we learn is not a huge concern. She simply brushed it out and donned a thin silver headband. Within five minutes Elsie was ready to leave, but she stopped by the kitchen to grab a cereal bar.

Reaching up towards the cabinet, she jerked her hand back when she heard a sound behind her. Turning slowly, Elsie saw none other than Hira, the little imp from her dreams. Elsie let out a loud gasp.

"Wha's the matter?" Hira asked, puzzling at Elsie's bewildered expression.

"I…I…You…You are supposed to be in my dreams. You're not real---You can't be here!" Elsie managed to stammer. This was madness. Dreams don't come to life!

Hira's face was suddenly clouded by confusion. "I dunno."

"How did you get out?" she asked, wondering where exactly she was supposed to have gotten out of, or if that was even the correct expression to use.

"I follow'd you." This seemed as logical an answer as any; if Elsie could traverse from world to world, who's to say that others couldn't do the same?

_I wish…_

The cold morning air felt good against Elsie's skin, and the long walk to the office seemed a little more bearable. Her shoes thudded against the wet pavement, amplified in part by the added weight of the imp in her backpack. Elsie, fearing the consequences of a missed day of work, had opted to bring Hira along, provided that she kept quiet and out of sight. The out of sight part was working out, but the silence was lacking.

Hira, peering from the holes and loose zippers of the backpack, was constantly questioning this strange new world. Elsie answered her questions in as few words as possible, making an effort not to seem as though she was talking to herself.

"'Ow come they gots trousers on?" Hira asked.

"What?"

"'Ow come they gots trousers on? The ladies. They gots trousers on."

"Oh!" In the world that Hira came from, the one that Elsie created, women wore only beautiful dresses in the Venetian style. "In my world, women can wear whatever they like." When Hira didn't respond, Elsie took it as a sign that she understood.

_Everything is so grey today. Why is there never any color in this world?_ She thought, looking up at the bleak sky. The people who passed her on the sidewalk never spared her a passing glance; she was far too ordinary to catch their eye. How could she be so different from her glorious dream-self? Here she was ignored, pushed aside, and underappreciated. In her world, however, she had friends. _Friends,_ she thought, _only come along in fairy tales and dreams._

_I wish…_

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_More soon to come, I promise! Once the rulers of two worlds meet, mayhem will ensue._


	2. Down the Alley

**Chapter 2 is finally uploaded! I hope you like it!  
I'm sorry if Jareth seems like a total jerk; he's just going through a moody spell(no pun intended).**

**Read and Review! :D**

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Lost to the world in her musings, Elsie didn't realize why these strange things had been happening. Why she had seen the dark castle on the horizon, or why Hira had been able to join her in the real world. A million miles away, in a place that wouldn't show up on any earthly map, the Goblin King heard her secret wish.

_I wish…_

From out of nowhere, a crystal rolled between Elsie's feet. Instinctively, she followed it, watching as it weaved around people's feet. For reasons unknown, she followed, seeming to think that it was leading her to the answers to of her rising number of questions.

It sped up so much that she had to run to keep up with it, but she stopped when it turned right into an alleyway.

Elsie was petrified to see what lurked around the corner. Taking Hira from her bag, she held the little imp in her arms. "There's only one way to find out what's going on, Hira," she said, her mismatched eyes wide with fear.

The king stood at his window, leaning against the castle's cool stonework. He enjoyed nothing more than to grant the wishes of mortals in the ways that they had never anticipated. Gazing into his crystal, he could see her. The latest victim of his 'generosity'. She was beautiful, he had to admit, but he knew that to show her any mercy would make him seem weak. This was one thing that he refused to do.

"Your Highness," a gruff voice began.

"Yes, what is it, Hoggle?" Jareth snapped, upset at having been interrupted. The image in the crystal faded away.

"You're not, uh, gonna bring her here, are you?" Hoggle asked, his grizzly eyebrows knit with concern.

"Why would you ask that?" the Goblin King asked in his usual condescending tone. "Of course I am."

Hoggle's face fell. "It's just that… The last time you brought a girl here…Things didn't end up so well for you." Jareth flinched at the mention of Sarah, the only person who had ever solved the labyrinth. "I mean, this one…She seems different, but---"

"She's no different from anyone else. She will not solve the labyrinth, and I will show her no pity." With that, Jareth vanished from the throne room of the castle. Hoggle stood there for a moment, bewildered, before returning to his work in the labyrinth's garden.

_I wish…_

Elsie stepped towards the alleyway, unsure of what she would find. Her feet seemed to refuse her mind's command, stepping lightly forward as if afraid that the earth might crumble beneath them. It was like walking on glass.

When the girl finally turned to face the alleyway into which the crystal had vanished, she felt certain that what lay ahead was an illusion.

There, before her, was the land of Labyrinth.

The gnarled castle jutted up into the sky, just as it had in her dream, and the land sprawling around it seemed dry and cruel. The maze of hedges and startling precipices was dark and foreboding. Elsie turned behind her to see, where the sidewalk and street had been only seconds before, a dead tree and a hill covered with weeds.

"Where are we?" she asked of no one in particular.

"I no like this place," Hira growled. The little imp snuggled closer to her friend.

"You know very well where you are," a voice from behind them leered.

Elsie turned quickly to see, on the top of the hill, resting against the gnarled, blackened tree, the Goblin King. The girl's breath caught in her chest.

"This is the kingdom from my dream."

"No, it is my kingdom, only revealed to you in your dream." He grinned at her, a cynical sort of grin.

"Your kingdom? That doesn't make any sense. I only dreamed of it. It's not real." Elsie spoke with such conviction that the Goblin King almost felt sorry for her.

"You really don't remember, do you?" he asked with a hint of pity in his speech.

Elsie merely shook her head no.

"Three years ago, you made a wish. You wished that there really was a place---"

"---As great as my dream kingdom," Elsie concluded. "But what does that have to do with you?"

"I am offering you your wish." At the tip of his extended hand was the crystal she had seen rolling across the pavement. "You want to live forever in your dream land, away from the heartless people you grew up with. Away from your father, I shouldn't wonder."

"How did you know---?"

"Do you accept?" There was a gleam in his eye that she just couldn't place.

Against her better judgment, Elsie replied in the affirmative.

"You have thirteen hours in which to solve the labyrinth. If you succeed, you will be given what you wished for." In the crystal's swirling depths, Elsie could see her own castle, with its sunny towers and glittering moat. With a flick of his fingers, the crystal disappeared. "Should you fail, you will remain here, forever, with me as my servant."

"Wait! That wasn't part of the deal!" she said, feeling deeply betrayed.

"Either way, I am granting your wish. All you asked was to live forever in a place as great as your dream kingdom, and I assure you, Precious, my kingdom is as great."

"No like it here!" Hira spat, snarling at the Goblin King.

"And I don't particularly care for you, you little brute." Jareth looked at the imp with a face full of detest. "I'd rather you had stayed in your own world instead of slipping into mine. Oh well. I'm sure there is a nice, deep oubliette just your size."

With that, Jareth vanished from sight, leaving the girl and the imp alone on the mountain top overlooking the labyrinth.

"Well, we might as well get started, Hira," Elsie said, beginning the long walk towards the gates.


	3. The Gateway

The walk from the hilltop to the gates wasn't brutal, and Elsie wasn't even breathing heavily when she reached them, even though she was carrying a ten pound imp in her arms. Once there, the unfortunate girl had neither a clue as to how to how to open it, as there were no nor what she would find once she did.

"Now what do I do?" she asked, bending to set Hira on the ground.

"Why not try 'Open Sesame'?" said a voice behind her. Elsie turned around. "Down here." Hoggle, the dwarf, glared up at her.

"Who are you?" she asked, blinking twice to reassure herself that she wasn't imagining him.

This gesture did not go unnoticed by the dwarf. "Blinking to see if I'm real, right? Well, I am, and I'm Hoggle, for yer information. Who are you?"

"I'm Elsie, and this is my friend Hira."

"That's what I thought."

"Um…" Elsie wanted so badly to say something like 'How could you have thought that if you had never met me?' but she restrained herself, knowing better than to argue with a mythical creature. "How do I get in?"

"In what? In trouble is all that you're in right now."

"Into the labyrinth," she insisted, her eyebrows creased in earnest.

"What about it?"

"How d'we get in?" the imp snarled. She was clearly not having a good time in this place.

"How do I get into the labyrinth? Geez, it's everything's like a freaking mind game in this place. I have to solve a riddle to get into a puzzle. Have you guys ever thought about becoming psychiatrists? Because I think you could reduce anybody's mind to rubble."

Hoggle didn't really have an answer to this, so he decided to answer her first question. "You gets in there," he said, indicating the door which was now open.

"Thanks," she said, exasperated. She was inside the gate now, and looking around. Either direction seemed to span for eternity. "Which way should I go?"

"Out the door would be the best way. Only danger lies ahead."

"Well, thank you for your sound advice, but I would much rather not be that man's slave for eternity, thank you very much."

Hoggle merely shrugged. "You might as well not even try. You'll never find your way to the center, and even if you do you'll never make it out again."

"I can handle it, Higgle."

"Hoggle."

"Yes, that's what I meant." Elsie turned right, ready to begin her search. "Goodbye, and thanks for opening the door."

"Well, um, you're welcome." Hoggle had never been thanked for opening the door; always before he had been shoved aside or ridiculed, the runners of the labyrinth taking for granted the fact that he had. Even though he could only open it for those who asked the right question, he felt as though it was at his discretion who entered and who could not, and those who did should be grateful. "Goodbye!"

As Elsie walked away from the gate, she heard the loud slam of its closing. "We've passed the point of no return."

"I wan' ta go home." The imp's eyes were mournful. Elsie didn't know what to say.

"Just think, Hira, if we solve this labyrinth, I'll never have to live in the real world again. I can stay with you, and the fairies, and the trolls and unicorns forever. I'll be the queen all the time." _Queen all the time_, she thought. _That's a wonderful thought._ To never have to endure the neglect that she received in her waking life would be great.

Elsie broke into a run, her feet hardly touching the ground. It was almost a dance, really, her beautiful turns and leaps. The girl couldn't help but smile; she could just see herself sitting on the throne, as pretty as a picture.

_I wish…_

_A queen without a king. How unfortunate. _Jareth, seated beneath the window, gazed into the crystal. _And so pretty, too._ No, he wouldn't get involved. He would show no mercy. He was the pitiless, cruel king of the goblins, and so he vowed to stay.

Hearing the dull footsteps behind him, Jareth smiled to himself. "What is it, Hedgepig?"

"It's Hoggle. I just, er, wanted to speak with you, yer majesty." The dwarf bowed, looking quite nervous.

"You wanted me to spare the girl, is that it?" he said, his smile fading as quickly as it had appeared.

"If you would---"

"I will not, and I won't tell you that again. What I will do is tip you headfirst into the bog of eternal stench for suggesting such a thing."

"But, sire---"

"Leave me."

Hoggle did as he was ordered, leaving Jareth to his tortured thoughts. _Such a lovely dancer._

_I wish…_

Elsie was twirling her skirt, dancing in time with a song she had never heard before. It was odd, she knew, but the melody was so familiar.

_There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes; a kind of pale jewel open and closed within your eyes._

_I'll place the sky within your eyes._

_I wish…_

The world fell down around Elsie, the sharp lines of the labyrinth's walls becoming vague, as if only the essence of lines. The ground fell from beneath her, and she was falling. Above her, she could see the sky fade from its orangey hue to a rain-washed grey.

The pavement hit her hard when she landed.

When she opened her eyes, Elsie was lying on the sidewalk in front of the alley, which was no longer a portal, but an ordinary alley with a dumpster and a couple of fire escapes. She was in the real world again, and there were was a small crowd of people grouped around her.

"Is she alright?" she heard one of them ask.

"I don't know. She just fainted out of the blue."

"Hey, look, I think she's coming around."

Elsie managed to sit up. "What happened?" she asked, glancing blearily from face to frantic face.

"You passed out."

"Oh." This seemed reasonable enough.

"Is that your dog?" one of them asked, pointing to Hira, who was hiding beneath a dumpster.

"Um, yeah." Taking the backpack from her back, she motioned to her, and the imp crawled into it. "I've got to get to work. See you later." Why was it that you had to collapse on the street to get some attention? Elsie didn't know, but she smiled to herself to think of the world she had waiting for her once she solved the labyrinth.


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